February 27th 2024: West coast summer

I grew up surfing at Raglan and my favourite place to surf was Outsides and Indicators. So on our way to a grom comp in Piha we spent a day at the points. I was excited to show the kids Indies – even with a light northeast blowing up the face – that's the devil wind at Raglan's points.

Indies used to be a place for hard core locals – order in the lineup was managed by the constant threat of violence and your place in it established by earning respect. Well, that seems to have become a relic of the past – on a scrappy day like this at least. We were the only Kiwis in the lineup and it seems not all nations play by the same set of rules. It made for a bit of chaos and once again reminded me that having a few enforcers in the water is always a better, safer option than a free-for-all.

However the enforcer in our second surf at Indies was not what I expected. By then the wind had swung norwest which is still not great, but better than the northeaster. We had just reached the lineup and had a few waves when I noticed the kids and a few adults all paddling for the whitewater. A great white shark had surfaced and was heading directly toward the surfers on the peak.

One of the adults ran across the white water towards the rocks and said, "that's a very big fish, I'm outta here". The kids looked puzzled about what to do as a set came in. We decided it would be a good idea to leave the water. Rewa, Tessa and my mate Brett caught a wave to the keyhole and got out. Keo caught a wave but then felt bad for me sitting out the back by myself so paddled back out. He did that four more times. Eventually we both caught a wave, but by then the girls had jumped back in at Whale Bay, which was handling the norwest much better anyway. So we finished off our session there completely shark free, albeit only a few hundred metres from where we had seen the foot-tall steel grey fin.

It was great to be surfing in boardies again, although the blue bottle stings weren't so good. Keo and I both got nailed by mosquitos, too. But summer on the west coast of the North Island is pretty epic.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS Locals tell us there has been a notably increased great white presence in Whaingaroa Harbour. And a few sightings around the points as well. With the fin we saw being steel grey and triangular in shape we reckon it was most likely to have been a great white that surfaced near us rather than a mako, which is also a common shark species around Raglan. The fact it was on the surface also suggested we didn't have to worry too much. There is no cause for alarm, great whites are known to make themselves scarce when orca are around. Orca regularly visit Whaingaroa Harbour to dine on stingrays. About 30 years ago I hopped out of the line up at Indicators so an orca mother and calf could surf the wave. They surfed a few sets that day before moving on half an hour later. To this day it is still one of my buzziest surfs there. Followed closely by this latest one ...